Good outcomes

Inflation Reduction Act monies being used for clean energy projects in local communities.

Quotes are from a Public News Service article published on 04/22/24.

New York towns are reaping many benefits since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.

Along with funds for larger clean energy projects, the state was awarded $158 million for the IRA's Home Energy Rebates program.

Smaller towns and villages use these grants to implement their climate action plans.

Editor’s note: It is wonderful to learn that local communities in New York State and Pennsylvania are using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to reengineer their energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

This collaboration between the Federal government and local governments is a good example of the principle of subsidarity which is described in Catholic Social Teaching. Anthony Annett describes the history of Catholic Social Teaching in his article, The Theology Of Social Democracy, in the April, 2024 issue of Commonweal magazine.

The principle of subsidiarity is often paired with solidarity. Some Catholics have argued that subsidiarity requires that the state take a hands-off approach to economic life. This isn’t quite right. Subsidiarity means that higher-level associations like the state must actively help and support lower-level associations like families, unions, and civil-society organizations. As Pope Francis puts it, subsidiarity means that “when single individuals, families, small associations and local communities are not capable of achieving primary objectives, it is right that the highest levels of society, such as the State, should intervene to provide the resources necessary to progress.” This is why unions, for example, are—as Pope John Paul II put it in his encyclical Laborem exercens—indispensable elements of social life. But there are still things that only a state can do to help individuals and families.